1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a radiographic imaging apparatus and a radiographic imaging system and particularly relates to a radiographic imaging apparatus and a radiographic imaging system that perform stereo imaging.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, radiographic imaging apparatus that perform radiographic imaging for medical diagnosis have been known. Examples of this type of radiographic imaging apparatus include mammography machines that image the breasts of subjects for the early detection of breast cancer and so forth.
In an examination using a mammography machine, the right and left breasts of an subject are individually imaged. It is common for the reader to have the radiographic images of the right and left breasts that have been captured displayed side-by-side such that their chest wall sides face each other and to compare the right and left breasts. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2004-97830 discloses a technology by which one of the radiographic images of the right and left breasts is rotated 180 degrees, the radiographic images of the right and left breasts are synthesized such that the edges of their chest sides are brought together, and a synthesized image in which the radiographic images have been synthesized is displayed.
Radiographic images obtained by imaging with radiographic imaging apparatus are two-dimensional images, so it is difficult to judge the three-dimensional distribution of lesions and so forth.
As a technique for improving diagnostic accuracy, there has been proposed a method of performing stereo imaging, where an imaging target site of a subject is irradiated twice with beams of radiation at predetermined parallactic angles with respect to capture radiographic images thereof, and allowing the two radiographic images that have been captured to be viewed individually by the right eye and the left eye of the reader so that the reader may stereoscopically view the radiographic images.
By mutually interchanging the images to reverse the images viewed by the right eye and the left eye, or by inverting right and left in each of the two radiographic images, or by rotating 180 degrees each of the two radiographic images, the two radiographic images that have been captured by stereo imaging appear such that the projecting directions of the stereoscopically viewed images are inverted and the images are being viewed from opposite directions.
In mammography, stereo imaging is performed with respect to the right and left breasts to capture two radiographic images each of the right breast and the left breast, and the radiographic images of the right and left breasts that have been captured are stereoscopically inspected while being compared. In a case where the two radiographic images of either one of the right breast or the left breast are rotated 180 degrees and synthesized with the other two radiographic images, the directions in which the right breast and the left breast project end up becoming opposite in the stereoscopically viewed images as a result of the former two radiographic images having been rotated 180 degrees.
JP-A No. 10-80418 discloses a technology by which, in a case where right and left directions of displayed images have been inverted, right and left images are mutually interchanged in conjunction with this such that an appropriate sense of depth is always imparted.
By using the technology described in JP-A No. 10-80418 to rotate 180 degrees the two radiographic images of either one of the right breast or the left breast in order to put together their chest sides, mutually interchange the two radiographic images to reverse the images viewed by the right eye and the left eye, or invert right and left in the two radiographic images, the directions in which the right breast and the left breast project can be made the same in the stereoscopically viewed images.